Zebra Danio Problems

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blackers92

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Ok i had 6 zebra danios, 4 of which i cycled my tank with.

Yesterday one of them died, (she has been looking pretty bad for a quite a while, sitting on the substrate, swimming backwards, she was still eating and even chasing the other danios but seemed to be getting picked on a fair bit. She was very small in comparison to the other and i did cycle the tank with her) so anyway i found her tangled in one of my plants and took her out.

Now what is really starting to worry me is that another one, ( i added two more to the original 6) is starting to look very pale, the other four have a yellow shade to their bodies, they look healthy and chase around each other in really quick movements, whereas this one has a more white/cream colour. It is quite large in comparison to the others, but it goes off and does its own thing which is really starting to stress me. it gets chased aswell. I am currently feeding them goldfish flake as that is all i have, should I start feeding them specific tropical flake? and are granules better then flake?

the danios are stocked with

5 - yoyo loach
and a bristlenose

who all look healthy, i feed the b/n and yoyos, algae wafers and cucumber

any suggestions?
 
Ok i had 6 zebra danios, 4 of which i cycled my tank with.

Yesterday one of them died, (she has been looking pretty bad for a quite a while, sitting on the substrate, swimming backwards, she was still eating and even chasing the other danios but seemed to be getting picked on a fair bit. She was very small in comparison to the other and i did cycle the tank with her) so anyway i found her tangled in one of my plants and took her out.

Now what is really starting to worry me is that another one, ( i added two more to the original 6) is starting to look very pale, the other four have a yellow shade to their bodies, they look healthy and chase around each other in really quick movements, whereas this one has a more white/cream colour. It is quite large in comparison to the others, but it goes off and does its own thing which is really starting to stress me. it gets chased aswell. I am currently feeding them goldfish flake as that is all i have, should I start feeding them specific tropical flake? and are granules better then flake?

the danios are stocked with

5 - yoyo loach
and a bristlenose

who all look healthy, i feed the b/n and yoyos, algae wafers and cucumber

any suggestions?

Sounds like the cycle is catching up with them.

Putting fish through a cycle often exposes them to elevated levels of ammonia and nitrite. These chemicals are very dangerous for fish and are present in cycling tanks. They may not get sick at the time but these chamicals cause long term damage and weaken their immune systems. Often fish get sick or die weeks, even months after being used for a cycle but it's often the cycle that caused the problems.

Are the danios all the same species? All zebras, or a mix? If you have a mix, it could be that they are ganging up on the 'outsiders'. The yellow tinge could also be a sign of a bacterial infection.

What size is the tank? Have you tested your water recently? What were the results?

As for food - I would feed a high quality tropical flake (such as Tetra Pro) or a tropical mini-pellet (Hikari do a great one). If you can get small enough pellets, feed those.
 
i tested the water parameters yesterday and got,

ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, pH 6.8

so it seemed stable, they are the same species i was told that males have a slight yellow tinge where as females have a cream colour between their blue strips :S, i did introduce 2 at a later date, but what I am worried about is that i "think" the one that is now looking sick is one of the newer ones, its hard to know for sure though.

the tank is 37 Gallons so its not overstocked or anything, i have live plants and do 25% changes every week

as for the food i will purchase some pellets tonight, i think they would be more appropriate for the loaches and im sure the danios will eat it. The b/n has algae wafers
 
your reading of zero nitrate has me a bit worried - there should always be some traces of nitrate....what type of test kit do you use?
 
whoops i meant 5 ppm of nitrate

my bad, im so used to writing the two zeros for ammonia and nitrite
 
i tested the water parameters yesterday and got,

ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, pH 6.8

so it seemed stable, they are the same species i was told that males have a slight yellow tinge where as females have a cream colour between their blue strips :S, i did introduce 2 at a later date, but what I am worried about is that i "think" the one that is now looking sick is one of the newer ones, its hard to know for sure though.

the tank is 37 Gallons so its not overstocked or anything, i have live plants and do 25% changes every week

as for the food i will purchase some pellets tonight, i think they would be more appropriate for the loaches and im sure the danios will eat it. The b/n has algae wafers

Even if your water is fine now, if you used the fish to cycle the tank they were probably exposed to elevated ammonia and nitrites in the past.

It may not be the problem but it's something that stands out to me.

Can you isolate the fish at all? I would isolate in a seperate tank with filter and heater and observe. Try to make the fish as comfortable as possible. If this is infectious, you don't want your other fish getting sick. If it turns out to need treatment you can provide that more easily in an isolation tank.
 
well the one that is looking sick is actually one i introduced a while ago, but i think it is fine, as it has been chasing around the others.

i dont have a isolation tank yet as I am completly new to fishkeeping and only have a 140 litre which I just cycled. I may purchase a smaller tank to use, but i will need to save some money first.

thanks for your advice, i also read that danios go yellow when showing sexual maturity, could this be the cause?
 

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